want to upgrade my dell 5150

[alien_hunter812006]

Hi there i want to upgrade my Dell dimension 5150 to a bigger power supply there is a 305 watt power supply in there now but dell says i cant put a bigger power supply in there is that true or is dell just saying that too keep me from doing it i need a bigger power supply so i can add a new video card that dose need power for it i was thinking of adding a 500 watt power supply if anyone can help me with this please let me know

[forizzle111]

what are your system specs??

[alien_hunter812006]

P4 2.80Ghz

PCI-E x300

1024MB of ram

80GB hard drive

[kilgoretrout]

I haven't used dells in a long time but there are numerous posts on the board describing problems with upgrading a dell psu. The main problem appears to be that dell does not use a standard pin placement on its psu connectors or perhaps even nonstandard connectors/plugs. As a result, if you even can put a standard psu in there, it fries the motherboard. I would proceed with caution. If the psu has a standard looking plug to the mb, you might be able to rearrange the pins on a standard psu to correspond to dells proprietary pinout. However, if you screw it up, the mb is likely to go up in smoke.

[alien_hunter812006]

i guess i could always take the dell mother board out and replace it with my own so that way i could upgrade it to how ever i want i could do that right ?

[freakitchen]

There are problems involved with motherboard swaps, too - specifically the front panel connectors to your case. In many brand computers, these are propriatory too.

To check yours, see if the wires from the front of the case connect to the motherboard by a ribbon cable, or in a single block, rather than individual wires and connectors. If so, you'll need to change the case as well!

It's generally suggested that only optical / hard discs are salvaged from DELLs.

Freakitchen